Agents usually handle properties for a fee of around 12.5 per cent, he points out – one reason why he’d go solo next time round: “All they did was take a picture of the house and `sell’ it. Once you know what to look out for, it’s all pretty straightforward.”Mr Smith was approached by a local estate agent acting on behalf of a South African sportswear manufacturer which was bringing seven guests for the tournament. “We moved out for nine days, taking our clothes but otherwise leaving 95 per cent of our stuff in the house,” he says. “Valuables were left in the safe.”The deal was that the golfing tenants would replace all food and drinks consumed from the Smiths’ kitchen and pay for any breakages. There was just one – a burn mark left by a saucepan; they paid for the repair without quibble. “I have no reservations and would not hesitate to do it again,” he concludes.Even so, Mr Smith (not his real name) sounds a note of caution: Don’t forget the taxman.

“We thought the money earned came within the tax-free limit,” he explains “We were going to declare it on my wife’s tax return .. but forgot.” The estate agents were not so lax They submitted full accounts to the Inland Revenue. Mr Smith was subsequently taxed in retrospect on the proceeds of his nine nights away from home – at 40 per cent.An alternative route is to go through a local tourist office: many list homeowners willing to rent. This is a typical approach for cricket fans unable (or unwilling) to book rooms in hotel accommodation around Hedingly and Edgbaston.Event organisers are also worth approaching as many already have links with homeowners who house visiting sports players and their teams. At Silverstone, the local Brackley tourist board has details of local properties for Grand Prix fans although spokeswoman Linda Anderson points out: “As yet, we’ve not had the right people to let them out to.”With an event like next month’s British Grand Prix, most people want to come only for the weekend while most householders want to move out for the entire week, she explains. “Also, we often find people are put off by the prospect of having a team of mechanics, or rowdy fans, staying in their house.”This is, perhaps, the most common concern.

When London-based communications consultant David Longman was approached to rent his Leeds property to football fans for Euro ‘96, he declined even though the move was made via an estate agent. “The money was good, but when it came to the crunch, I didn’t fancy the prospect of Bulgarian football fans spilling beer on the carpet,” he explains.For those happier to take a gamble, however, it’s a bet that could pay dividends.Hallowed turfAscot Largest properties, rented while owners holiday abroad during the races, can go for up to pounds 10,000 a month.Cowes, Isle of Wight A six-bedroom family house for sailing types can cost from pounds 1,000 to pounds 2,000 for seven nights; smaller properties start at pounds 550.Henley-upon-Thames A modestly-sized family house with its own mooring for the regatta costs from pounds 800 per week.Midhurst Polo types can pay pounds 2,000 a month to rent prime local homes for the season.Sandwich, Kent One home went for pounds 3,300 a week to golfing devotees attending the British Open back in 1993.Silverstone Local houses are regularly rented for the week of the British Grand Prix Prices from pounds 500 a week.. What can investor-collectors of modest means learn from Donald Heald, world-renowned New York dealer in antiquarian natural history books, who spent over $1m at this month’s sensational sell-out sale of a botanical library at Christie’s New York? He was in chipper mood when I spoke to him shortly before he flew to London for book week – book auctions and the annual Antiquarian Book Fair at Grosvenor House, next Thursday to Saturday. The New York auction has boosted the fortunes of natural history books, those big, sumptuously illustrated, usually hand-coloured volumes of birds and flowers that have been the pride of gentlemen’s libraries from the 16th Century to this day.

They have already acquired an international appeal, transcending language.
In this country in the past year, auction prices for such books have risen 10 to 20 per cent, after edging up for a decade. Prices respond to surges in the housing market: rich old couples who judge it a good time to sell their echoing manse and move to a cottage often simultaneously auction their bulky antiquarian books along with the surplus furniture and silver. That stimulates the book market.Although house prices slumped in the 1990s, prices for natural history books, especially sought-after classics such as John Gould’s The Birds of Great Britain (1873), have shown a ratchet-like resilience, creaking upwards by half a per cent or so a year Now, house prices are surging again. Which is good news for books.What tips, then, from the ebullient Mr Heald’s spending spree? The answer is: a lot and a little.